A Dragon Ball FighterZ Hyperbolic Approach To Training & Victory

Jeff Kotuby,

February 5, 2018 7:40 PM

Now that you know who to play as, it's time to put the work in and become a legend in your own right! Dive in to training mode techniques you need to work on in order to take the next step in your game!

So, you’ve picked your controller and your team. Now, it’s time to get to work. The most important thing to remember is that while Dragon Ball FighterZ is unique, it’s still a fighting game - and anything you work on here will translate to other games as well, with some minor tweaks. Starting from the top and working our way down, here’s an easy-to-follow roadmap on what you should work on as you learn DBFZ.

→ Movement

This is a little more intuitive than you may think. Some important things to note here are you character’s forward and backward walk speed, dash distance, jump arcs, and super jump height. Each character varies, so it is crucial to know these things going into a fight.

UM Tyrant, who is an awesome resource for fighting game players at any level, discusses movement in one of his videos. He’s definitely worth a follow if you’re a fan of high-quality, in-depth tutorials (who isn’t?)

→ Buttons

By “buttons", I mean normals, which are executed with single button presses. Observe your character’s various standing, crouching, and jumping attacks. See how far their limbs extend, if the an attack moves you forward (like Frieza’s Standing Medium) or if it hits multiple times. Just like in BlazBlue, Dragon Ball FighterZ has some universal moves every character can do. Forward+Medium is an overhead attack that can't be comboed to and from without an assist, Down+Heavy is your launcher, perfect for dealing with poorly timed Super Dashes, and Jumping Heavy is an attack that slams your opponent into the ground.

→ Execution

While it’s not the most important thing, being able to hit your combos consistently will be the difference between a win and a loss. Even if it’s a generic L-->M-->Launch-->H-->Air L-->Air M-->Air H combo - it’s still something you’re hitting consistently! I know the game has auto-combos, but if you’re really looking to level up as a player, you need to move away from them for the most part. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve mashed L to victory a few times already and will continue to do so as the opportunity presents itself.

There's more than one way to victory in DBFZ.

But for those of you struggling, like this Reddit user here, it’s just a matter of staying calm while you’re doing your combos. To an observer, professional fighting game players look like they’re playing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, but to them it’s like time is moving in slow motion. They’ve practiced their combos a million times before, so to them it’s like nothing. The only way to get there is to practice and not be afraid to fail. Like I told the above Redditor, you need to understand you’re going to fail, and that’s perfectly fine, but it’s not okay to give up without trying.

→ Team Synergy

How your team works together is just as important as the way the team works separately. Your characters should compliment each other, rather than take away from one another. Ideally, you’ll want your team to revolve around one character in particular, whether that’s your point, (lead character) mid, or anchor (last) character. Fighting game YouTuber novriltataki explains how to build a team in this video.

You should generally watch the hints that pertain to the Versus series of games, as DBFZ most closely resembles those - however don’t discount the King of Fighters strategies, either. You can use the team concept of battery/mid/anchor in DBFZ - and in fact you should. Your point character should generate meter without needing to use it, your mid should be able to take advantage of some meter without using all of it, and your anchor should be a character who benefits from using lots of resources.

For example, Dan “SYN | Jaegar” McMahon told me he plans on creating a team based on these ideals. “Android 21 is my point character to build meter, Vegeta is my mid to utilize his assist, and then I’ll probably use Trunks or Goku Black on anchor to cash in all that meter I’ve built up.”

→ Drawing Board

The most important thing to understand about fighting games is that nothing’s final. The best thing you can do for yourself now is to go play some games, either against random players online or with some friends, and find out what your strengths and weaknesses are as a player. It could mean you’re using the right characters but playing them incorrectly, using the wrong order but the right characters, or using the wrong characters entirely.

Sometimes, you gotta try different things to find the perfect edge.
Sometimes, you gotta try different things to find the perfect edge.

My personal experience with the game has been enlightening, to say the least. My initial team from the beta was Goku/Frieza/Cell, which did not work for me at all when the game finally released. Then I switched to Goku/Frieza/Trunks, only to discover 1) I felt like Goku wasn’t doing as much damage as other characters could, 2) I need to move Frieza to anchor due to his propensity to use all my meter, and 3) Trunks wasn’t working out for me. So I switched to SSB Goku, Gotenks, and Frieza. Yet again, I made a discovery regarding a character, this time Gotenks, who wasn’t working for me, so I switched him with Goku Black. Goku Black has an assist that works better with my style of play, and the character fits that style as well.

If you feel like you need some more help, another great resource for this is this guide created by GameCrate, which helps go over things the tutorial does not. Plus, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are all valuable resources for you to use to get better, where groups and community have banded together to learn. These, combined with good old fashioned lab work, will help you be ready to take on the online world.  

If you haven’t gone back and read the first two parts of this series, it might be a good idea, especially if you’re still thinking about what controller to use and what characters to pick up. If you need some inspiration, check out some of the best DBFZ plays from the beta!



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